Cedar Park To Require Masks As Coronavirus Spikes

CEDAR PARK, TX — The mayor of Cedar Park on Monday said he is poised to make the wearing of facial coverings mandatory amid rising rates of the coronavirus.

Mayor Corbin Van Arsdale said he is taking the step after hearing from residents, business owners and chamber of commerce officials. Arsdale's move comes after the Round Rock City Council issued an emergency ordinance requiring residents to don protective face coverings when outdoors, and the Cedar Park mayor said Leander and other cities in the county are expected to implement similar measures.

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"After listening to feedback from our residents, our Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce, and several key business owners in one-on-one calls, later today I’m issuing an order that directs our Cedar Park businesses and non-profits to require face coverings indoors for both employees and visitors," Van Arsdale wrote on his official Facebook page early Monday afternoon.

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• Coronavirus: Texas Illness Count Crosses 148K Mark
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"It will become effective this Wednesday," the mayor said of his planned order taking effect July 1. "You will see similar directives issued shortly by Georgetown, Taylor, Round Rock, Hutto, and Leander in an effort to slow down the COVID spread, save our ICU bed capacity, and protect businesses from a second wave of shutdowns that could bankrupt them."

The mayor outlined the reasons for the new mandate:

• "First, this will protect our Cedar Park residents," he wrote. "Our Wilco ICU bed usage is at 88 percent, and expected to fill soon if big changes don’t happen right now. Cedar Park has only four ICU beds currently available. One of us, or someone we care about, may need an ICU bed this summer. We must do everything we can to make sure that bed will be there. Since I’ve been on the city council, I don’t remember receiving more emails/phone calls about any issue than I have in the last 10 days on the issue of face coverings. The ratio from residents has been 9-to-1 in favor of businesses requiring face coverings."
• Van Arsdale touched on the economic implications of not wearing protective face coverings. "Second, this will protect our businesses and our economy — particularly our small businesses. The businesses themselves have universally told me they are highly supportive of having such a directive in place. When a customer infects one of their employees, sometimes the entire business has to temporarily shut down. Also, businesses should not have to deal with unequal playing fields with their competitors when making mask policies, while they’re fighting to survive. That playing field should be level. Further, not requiring face coverings will expose our businesses to tremendous liability exposure from post-COVID litigation. While our large corporate and multi-national businesses can maybe survive a second statewide shutdown, our smaller businesses simply can’t—many would be bankrupted by that. We can’t let that happen."
• He emphasized the primary reason for wearing masks in a time of pandemic: "The main reason to wear face coverings is not to protect ourselves, it’s to protect others from our spreading COVID should we have it but not realize it. We must slow down the spread by keeping six feet distance from others and, when we can’t, by wearing face coverings. Lots of uncertainty remains about this virus. If we’re wrong about face coverings, then it’s a small inconvenience. But if we’re right about them, we’re saving lives and we’re saving our economy."

The mayor expressed empathy at the inconvenience of wearing masks, and stressed the tactic was apolitical. Of late, the wearing of masks has somehow been politicized as conservatives eschew them while suggesting the requirement is driven by a liberal agenda. In his statement, Van Arsdale disabused residents of that notion.

Face coverings required sign (English) [PDF]

Face coverings required sign (Spanish) [PDF]

"I know these are tough times," the mayor wrote. "We’ve all been highly affected. It’s been hard. This isn’t a time for politics or selfishness. Our main priority right now is to make choices that help our neighbors. It’s one of the things that makes us Cedar Park. So let’s keep being there for each other. We will get through this together."

While there are no civil or criminal penalties for non-compliance, businesses must require face coverings under the mayor's order, according to an advisory. The requirement to wear face coverings does not apply to the following situations:

• When eating, drinking or smoking;
• when outdoors;
• when a person is engaged in exercise or physical activity at a gym or exercise facility;
• when wearing a face covering poses a greater health, safety or security risk than not wearing one;
• when a person is within six feet of another person but is separated from that person by Plexiglass or other mitigation strategy that provides adequate separation;
• when inside a building or facility that requires security surveillance or screening, such as a bank or financial institution;
• when under the age of 13 and attending a daycare, childcare, youth camp or sports camp

The move to mandate masks comes amid soaring rates of respiratory illness across Texas — spikes from which Cedar Park has not been immune. On Sunday, Texas Department of State Health Services officials reported a growth of 5,352 new illness cases in 24 hours, raising the historical illness count to 148,723. Another 27 patients statewide died of the respiratory illness in the same 24-hour period, bringing the fatality count so far to 2,393.

Williamson County also has seen rising illness rates. Williamson County and Cities Health District officials on Sunday reported 169 new cases of coronavirus, raising the historical total to 2019. The number of current active cases of the respiratory illness outstrip the 835 recoveries reported on Sunday by 280, according to the data found on a statistical dashboard.

A man in his 40s became the latest victim to succumb to respiratory illness on Sunday, officials reported. Given patient privacy laws, it's unclear in which WilCo city the latest victim resided. The previous Friday, health officials reported three more deaths of elderly county residents, later subtracting one from the count after ultimately not able to be positively identified as a coronavirus-related fatality.

According to the dashboard data, Cedar Park currently has 146 open cases of coronavirus. Round Rock is the city in Williamson County with the greatest concentration of illness, with 389 active illness cases. Georgetown is second with 222 open cases, while Leander has 75.